1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle periphery viewing apparatus for capturing images in the periphery of a vehicle with an image capturing device and displaying the sensed images on a display device in the vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the field of vehicles, for example, in order to facilitate a driver to see an area behind a vehicle, the area is captured by a back camera installed in the rear of the vehicle and the captured area is displayed on a display device such as a liquid crystal panel installed in the vehicle.
Requirements for such a back camera can include the following two points.
(1) Seeing walkers, obstacles and so on in the periphery of a vehicle using a camera image.
(2) Grasping the sense of distance between a vehicle and another vehicle or an obstacle such as a wall with a resolution of 10 cm, for example, when the vehicle reverses.
Of both points, point (1) can be achieved by using a typical original image of the back camera. FIG. 8 shows an original image captured by the back camera. As can be seen from the original image, since a back camera 1 is installed at a height H from the ground level, as shown in FIG. 9, the original image which falls within a visual field range 3 of the back camera 1 is captured at a point of view from which an object is obliquely seen downward.
Regarding point (2), for example, as shown in FIG. 10, it is possible to grasp the sense of distance by transforming an image at the point of view from which an object is obliquely seen downward into an image of a plan view coordinate using a view point conversion technique such as a geometrical correction for an image.